Now all roads lead to France and heavy is the treadOf the living; but the dead returning lightly dance.

Edward Thomas, Roads

Saturday, September 12, 2015

The Case of the Missing War Memorial

It was truly embarrassing. Last month, on the first day of my second centennial battlefield tour, I took the group to the famous Plateau de Californie above the village of Craonne on the Chemin des Dames. Besides the amazing view of the battlefield one of the "must-see" sites on the plateau was the somewhat controversial but memorable bronze sculpture pictured below. [Note the use of past tense.] It stood 4 meters tall and weighed 1.6 tons. Artist Haïm Kern named his creation Ils n’ont pas choisi leur sépulture — "They didn’t choose their burial." It's considered something of a gem of anti-war artistic expression and I gave it a big build-up as we approached the plateau.

However, when we arrived at the site, the memorial was not where I had remembered. While I went stomping around the site grumbling about its being moved, the more sensible tour members discovered a sign indicating it had been stolen a year before. Needless to say, this did not put my trip preparation in the best light. However, things recovered pretty much for the rest of the tour, but I decided to investigate the theft when I returned home.

Here's what I've learned from various websites. Two arrests had been made of a metal scavenger, who had no idea of the symbolism represented by the sculpture, and of his fence. The statue had already been cut up, with 280 kg of the bronze found in a junkyard and the rest apparently already disposed of. The 84-year-old artist is reported to be deeply saddened by the theft and destruction of his work.

Here is a brighter ending. A French farmer was tired of plowing around a memorial in the middle of his field so he dismantled it and threw the pieces into the woods. The theft was discovered, the pieces found. The farmer was fined and charged with the cost of re-erecting it....yep...in the middle of his field.

Editors & Contributors

Roads to the Great War is part of the Worldwar1.com (link) family of websites and periodicals. It is produced by an editorial team, growing for over a decade, that includes: Michael Hanlon, Kimball Worcester, David Beer, Tony Langley, Donna Wagner, and Diane Rooney. We will also be inviting other WWI historians, enthusiasts, and collectors to contribute to Roads.